Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster

Considering that it's more or less a biographical film, it's incredibly action-packed and lively. The fights are simply excellent, whether it's kung fu masters battling each other or a kung fu guy against a boxer, as in this case. Yip Man moved to Hong Kong to escape Japanese hostility, but here he also encounters misunderstanding, this time from Westerners who essentially did something similar to what the Japanese did in China. They think they're so tough, so they need to be put in their place. The confrontation between Wing Chun martial arts and boxing is absolutely fascinating. Social issues are not overlooked either, so it's definitely a thumbs up from me. (01/04/2014)

We've fallen from a relatively complex and multi-themed action flick into a second film full of the classic vices of most sequels in general. It tries to copy the good stuff from the first one in an even more over-the-top fashion, and anything new has to be better, bigger, noisier. Unfortunately, the film is also much more straightforward and flat, like a Rocky IV from the East, where, instead of ideological hyperbole, everything is taken almost deadly serious. A worse average. (10/21/2021)

At least in the first one the Japanese had manners, but in Ip Man 2 the Westerners are portrayed as spineless assholes who deserve nothing but defeat. The ridiculous epilogue only confirmed the fifth. (03/11/2011)